Alright, let's do this thing (doing a copy-and-edit from one of Terrys posts for a previous contest).

On the 15-16 of august (the weekend after next) we're going to have a 48 hour RPG making contest. It starts from whatever time you wake up on Saturday to whatever time you go to bed at on Sunday. The theme of the contest is side scroller - as Verious put it: "There aren't enough side scrolling RPGs. ".

You may use a premade engine, premade graphics and premade music - anything you have at hand from old placeholders to ripped spites. You may also opt to start from scratch. That's up to the individual entering. However, the rest of the game's content must be made during the contest's 48 hours - content meaning dialogue, level design, and so on.

The contest will by judged on Ms. Congeniality terms - everyone who enters gets one vote and may vote for whoever they like, including themselves. The winner will receive a significant boost to their street credibility.

These rules are not final, so free free to discuss them in this thread. The idea is to keep restrictions to a minimum - however, as the time limit's fairly short, it's recommended that you keep your ideas simple and aim to release something by Sunday night.

Just to clarify a few questions that have been asked (and to preempt a few more):
* You must design the actual game during the contest, but you may use premade graphical and music resources, and you can use a premade engine.
* By premade engine, this can be any core program you've made yourself, or alternatively game making software of any kind, including Gamemaker, RPG Maker, OHRRPGCE, Multimedia Fusion, etc...
* It doesn't matter what platform your game runs on.
* You may work in teams! However, teams only get one vote, so you'll have to decide among yourselves who you want to vote for.

That's it. Like I said above, feel free to disagree with any of this or ask for clarifications and we'll amend the rules.

Also, if you want to discuss your projects during the contest you can drop in to our IRC channel at #indie-rpg on irc.esper.net - an excellent way to socialize while making your entry.

You know, I'd really like to go for this. Weekends are *hard*, but weekdays are worse._________________Tales of the Rampant Coyote - Old-School Game Developer talks Indie Games, RPGs, and the Games Biz

Not that I'm dismissing such a thing, just blatantly assuming that we will collaborate is not exactly a smart thing to do given our collaboration work history.

So yeah, I'm thinking of making use of SFML for my entry.
It looks really easy to use, and is cross-platform.
I'm starting to learn it as of today. Looks like a blast._________________Principal Software Architect
Rambling Indie Games, LLC

I could do the end of the month, or even the 3rd weekend. Not the second.

ok, shame, but I think we need to stick with the 15-16. To do the 8-9 (this weekend) feels a bit too sudden, and the third or last weekend is too close to the Ludum Dare, I think. So yeah, 15-16 it is.

So: Let's spread the word - if you know people who might be interested in this, tell them about it. If you visit some other game or programming related forums, post about the competition there. Let's also invite artists and musicians - would be great for collaborations.

I must say I'm looking forward to this a lot :-) Just need to finish the refactoring of my pixie game engine before it starts (or I'll have to use an older version, which would work but not be as much fun...)_________________www.mattiasgustavsson.com - My blog
www.rivtind.com - My Fantasy world and isometric RPG engine
www.pixieuniversity.com - Software 2D Game Engine

Let's spread the word - if you know people who might be interested in this, tell them about it. If you visit some other game or programming related forums, post about the competition there. Let's also invite artists and musicians - would be great for collaborations.